The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently created a working group to conduct more research into how a person’s genetics are related to their ability to achieve and maintain weight loss.
While behaviours such as diet and exercise, as well as environmental factors, contribute to a person’s weight, these things are not the only factors that influence how much a person’s weight can change or fluctuate. Similar treatments, diets, environments and exercise routines can produce very different results for different people, suggesting that there is something else that influences how much somebody weighs that is not related to their behaviour.
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In response to these discrepancies, the NIH enlisted a team of researchers to produce a study, led by lead author Dr. Molly Bray of the University of Texas-Austin, to explore potential links between genetics and obesity. The study was published in the January 2016 edition of Obesity. The purpose was to examine how weight gain, loss and maintenance is related to genetic factors, and how knowledge of these factors can help people understand why they experience weight in the way that they do.
The study was successful in identifying several areas of genetic factors that potentially contribute to weight changes, and the team has recommended further research in particularly significant areas. Research into these areas has the potential to help people better understand why certain weight management techniques work (or don’t work) for them the way that they do. They also potentially may allow for personalized weight maintenance strategies for people that are based on their genetic makeup.
“Genetic variants as predicators of obesity treatment response: some genetic variants appear to make particular treatments more successful for certain individuals” reports Medical News Today in their discussion of the study. “For example, those with a certain allele on the MTIF3 gene may find it easier to lose weight through intensive lifestyle interventions with a focus on diet and physical activity, while a specific FTO variation may lead to greater weight loss following bariatric surgery.”
The fact that a specific genetic trait such as a specific allele on a specific gene may help identify exactly which strategies will likely work better for different individuals has the potential to be groundbreaking, as a look at someone’s genetic information has the potential to explain why certain strategies have or have not worked for them in the past. Furthermore, if somebody can predict the success of various weight management programs based on their genetics, then a look into genes can help people choose the best programs that are right for them without having to worry about a long process of trial and error.
Also important to this study is its suggestion that an individual’s success in losing weight is not always related to their behaviour, but can be contingent on factors outside of their control. The study suggests that genetics can even impact food preferences, and predispositions towards eating and drinking behaviour, and that these things are not always something that a person can control.
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The study indicates that a person may struggle more than someone else to eat healthier because their biological genetic makeup strongly influences this behaviour. Furthermore, the study also suggests that, even if someone is successful in eating healthier, that person may still not see weight-loss results simply because that particular kind of healthy diet does not allow their body to lose weight as a result of particular genetic factors.
These results demonstrate that struggles with weight are not necessarily indicative of the behaviour or choices of the individual who struggles with the weight, but are indicative of genetic factors that the person cannot influence. These results have the potential to help with many of the struggles with mental health, guilt, body-shaming and self-image related to weight, as they demonstrate the ways in which weight loss can be, to some extent, out of a person’s control.
As further research develops as a result of the findings of this study, the scientific community should be able to more specifically identify which genetic factors affect weight management, and may be able to put this information into action by integrating genetic knowledge into discussions and plans surrounding weight.
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